WS Chronicle

Eric Tegethoff, North Carolina News Service 

 The addition of fluoride to water systems has become a major topic in communities across the country, including North Carolina. 

Oral health specialists say fluoridation is important for people’s dental health. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has raised questions about the health effects of fluoride in water, and two North Carolina counties have voted to stop adding it to their water supplies. 

Dr. Rhonda Stephens, professor of the practice at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, said fluoride is known to reduce rates of tooth decay and adding it to water supplies gets its benefit to everyone regardless of socioeconomic status. 

“We know there are a lot of access to dental care issues around the country, usually based on financial situations, the presence or lack thereof of a dentist,” Stephens acknowledged. “Community water fluoridation gets around all of that.” 

Stephens pointed out fluoridated water has benefits for everyone, especially children, where the fluoride is integrated into teeth as they grow, making them stronger. 

Stephens noted any element can be toxic at high levels, water included, and argued critics of fluoridated water systems are cherry-picking studies and not comparing apples to apples. 

“What people are not grasping onto is the fact that the studies are done in countries where the amount of fluoride that is naturally occurring in the water is four, sometimes five times higher than what we recommend here as a public health intervention,” Stephens pointed out. 

Stephens stressed a fluoridated water system does not, itself, prevent tooth decay. She stressed investments should be made in a variety of areas to improve people’s dental health. 

“If no one invests in any type of alternative once they’ve removed one that’s worked for 80 years, that’s concerning,” Stephens cautioned. “Are you going to invest in your residents having better access to dental care? Maybe you don’t even have a dentist in that community. What is your community going to invest to try to get a dentist in that area?”